Q&A: Ben Foster on 'The Messenger'

Friday

Nov 27, 2009 at 2:00 AM

Back in September, at the Woodstock Film Festival launch party, took some of his time to talk about “The Messenger,” directed by Oren Moverman, is showing at Upstate Films in Rhinebeck, released by Oscilloscope Laboratories. “The Messenger” is Foster’s 22nd feature film.

Deborah Medenbach

Back in September, at the Woodstock Film Festival launch party, took some of his time to talk about “The Messenger,” directed by Oren Moverman, is showing at Upstate Films in Rhinebeck, released by Oscilloscope Laboratories. “The Messenger” is Foster’s 22nd feature film.

Ben, you play the role of a combat soldier who is assigned to spend the last three months of his tour notifying the next of kin of the deaths of soldiers. What were you drawing from for this portrayal?

It was really just shutting up and asking questions and listening to the soldiers. We went down to Walter Reed and spent time in the amputee ward.

Was that tough for you?

It’s a tough gig to have your legs blown off. We try to get out of the way and get on to these boys and girls — and they are that...young kids — and not put any personal politics on that or on them. Just human to human and honor these guys by getting out of the way. That’s the goal.

What brought you to audition for this film?

I read the script and I met Oren and I was very excited to meet him, being a fan of his work, his scripts. Great scripts. “I’m Not There,” “Jesus’ Son.” He’s a terrific writer, and I knew that before we even met. He seemed sparse and didn’t state an overt perspective. He just shared circumstances. How do we deal with our own grief and life after a trauma? Trauma is universal and the experience of losing someone is also a universal experience. We all lose people and we will continue to lose people and we will be lost to other people some day. That’s a big thing that our culture doesn’t want to address. It’s denial. What I love about the picture and the script is that it’s a natural occurrence. It’s not just about war and the loss of life, but how we deal with our own grief and really celebrate the time that we have together. Now. Together. Wherever we are and whoever we’re with. It’s a beautiful thing to remind ourselves of. We HAVE to remind ourselves.

Was there much improvisation?

It’s such a beautiful script. He’d [Oren Moverman] ask us “Does this feel right?” or “Does this feel like a line?” “Does it feel connected?”

If a line didn’t feel connected, how would you deal with it?

I’m of the school that if you don’t have to say it, don’t. So when I’m first new with a director, I’d just sit down with a pen and cross things out “don’t need to say that...don’t need to say that...” You lose about 20 to 30 percent that way. To get a movie made, you need to overwrite it so that everybody gets it. The financiers and producers need to know exactly who these people are and then, when you get to the set, it’s a distilling process. When we got to the set with Oren he said, ’I wrote this, but now I’m directing it as though it’s someone else’s script, so let’s listen to each other.’ There’s a structure and it’s about movement with the structure of the characters.

How did you prepare?

Talking to soldiers. The extras on our set were the men and women that got back from Afghanistan two days before. In the prep, Oren came to work early and would just sit with them and ask questions and listen to the soldiers. We’d read as much as we could to personalize it. Everyone has their own way. Walking has always been a useful technique to find the character. If I can’t see it in my mind’s eye, I can’t feel it. So one builds a private world that isn’t seen on film necessarily but lays the foundation that supports the structure of the script. So walking is a very important, building a world...listening to music that keys in to a certain frequency and then being vigorous about creating a landscape.

Surprises?

Every day. Oren probably told you, we never rehearsed. We never met the people we would be notifying and they never met us until the door opens. That’s the first time we met. The takes are set up and they’d rough out the moves, or Oren would talk to us separately. We didn’t meet, ever, until the camera’s rolling. Oren creates an environment which demands listening to each other and being with each other, every day. Then is it’s your own endurance to feel. The kitchen scene was not rehearsed and that was done in one take with marks on the ground and we’d just be with each other.

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